


Ghost Story

by Oroburos69



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-12
Updated: 2013-08-12
Packaged: 2017-12-23 05:55:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/922787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oroburos69/pseuds/Oroburos69
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Evil doesn't rest, and neither can he.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghost Story

He woke in darkness, the dream shredding like cobwebs, the invisible remnants of it clinging to his skin. He tasted blood, his tongue rolling around along his teeth, finding a metallic welling of it in his molars.

He rose, washed, dressed, and went to work. Evil didn't rest, and neither could he.

Sleep had never been difficult for him. Given a dark room, he usually drifted off within minutes. Since the fight, though, he's been sleeping suddenly. While eating dinner, he woke with his face pillowed by his rice. He was ravenous, hunger gnawing at him like a living thing, and Sakazuki ate everything in sight before he caught himself, fingers deep in his food, fork abandoned. He ate alone. Had done so since Kuzan betrayed him. No one to see.

Sakazuki cleaned up with him napkin, embarrassed by every misplaced grain of rice, every messy drop of sauce.

Before he went to bed, he indulged himself, asking after Kuzan. He read while he waited for his assistant to return with news. Bounty papers for approval. He stamps them all, approving the new, higher sums, ignoring the note from the treasury that had accompanied them. Justice could not rely on such petty concerns.

Kuzan was still in a coma. Sakazuki took the news calmly, and dismissed his assistant for the night. They had work tomorrow. Evil didn't rest.

He rested, his bed silent. Sleep eluded him, his mind caught up in thoughts. He wanted--he wished Kuzan would wake. He wanted to ask the man why, so he could put the matter aside.

Sakazuki woke abruptly, the world outside his window still dark. His mouth ached. He probed his teeth with his tongue, searching out the source of the pain. One of them wiggled when he pushed on it, loose.

He hadn't fought since Kuzan betrayed him, hasn't been hit at all recently. Sakazuki didn't...

He woke when his alarm went off for the first time in year, sleeping late, his mind foggy, tainted by dreams he couldn't remember. Sakazuki tested his teeth one by one as he got ready for work. His third molar, lower right hand side, was still loose.

Work waited for him. Evil didn't rest. Sakazuki met with Marines. Some good, some bad, some trained by Garp. He knew most of them, knew which ones could be trusted and which ones should be sent to Lougetown.

Blood rushed into his mouth as Commodore Smoker requested funds to be sent in search of Strawhat Luffy, and Sakazuki agreed in his distraction, surprising the both of them. His tooth tilted in his mouth, rolling inward when he bit down.

He skipped lunch, heading down to the base hospital, checking on Kuzan, asking for a dentist. Kuzan was still in a coma and Dr. Jorgan was fairly certain that they would have to amputate his leg.

The dentist couldn't find a cause for his loose tooth, and it fell out while he examined it, leaving a raw, bloody hole in Sakazuki's mouth.

They'd build him new teeth, the dentist promised him, handing him tissues to spit blood into. Better teeth.

Sakazuki passed out in the dentist's mint-green chair, and woke up starving, blood filling his mouth and a second tooth loose.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the One Piece Chaos thread.  
> http://serrende.dreamwidth.org/155281.html


End file.
